In Hudson County, New Jersey, prosecutor Edward DeFazio says there’s one overriding reason the Lehigh Valley sees trouble moving in from the Garden State. DeFazio: “Handguns are much more easily purchased in Pennsylvania than in New Jersey.” Statistics show that the vast majority of gun crimes in New Jersey can be traced back to Pennsylvania purchases. DeFazio says the criminals are getting their guns in Pennsylvania … and now they’re committing crimes in the Keystone State, too.

Except it would seem Pennsylvania is also a more hazardous place to try to terrorize people. There are about 580,000 LTCF holders in Pennsylvania. Had Mr. Pierce been a resident of New Jersey, he’d be the one in the hospital, or worse.

3 Responses to “Blaming Pennsylvania Again”

That’s about the most ridicules things I ever heard. The people moving to the Lehigh Valley (ABE area in particular) are ghetto mentality from North NJ/NY area. It has nothing to do with lax gun laws but is due to the lower cost of living. NJ/NY tax you to death. Of course these people bring their Ghetto mentality with them and so the problem begins. New Jermany is still the land of the un-free home of the blame. Thank God the good people of Pennsylvania don’t tolerate the nonsense.

NJ gangs are probably moving into NE PA to stake out new, less-competitive territory, and also because NJ LEOs are starting to put more heat on gang activities in NJ. (I suppose at some point we’ll also see increased gang warfare if Philly gangs contest this migration.)

I doubt if the gangs give any consideration to PA-vs-NJ gun laws, since it’s a moot point for them in either state.